Divorce Can Hurt the Environment; Tips to Help Recycle, Save and Think Green
With the success of documentary films, like Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour,” the environment is coming back into the media spotlight. But did you know that divorce is one of the causes leading to environmental waste?
According to a recent article in “Science Daily,” divorce is bad for the environment. Because people move away from each other when they divorce, that creates more separate households. Each household takes up additional energy use. The survey was performed by Jianguo “Jack” Liu and Eunice Yu at Michigan State University.
Liu told Science Daily, “Not only the United States but also other countries, including developing countries such as China and places with strict religious policies regarding divorce, are having more divorced households.”
The idea is less complicated than it sounds. A regular household uses paper products with things like toilet paper, paper towels, phone books and more. Water is used for dishes, showers and washing the car. Cooking may not seem a waste, but it can be when the person lives alone. Using the stove to make eggs for one person requires the same amount of energy as cooking eggs for morel.
According to Michigan State University’s study, keeping a refrigerator uses the same energy everywhere, whether there are two or four family members – energy waste made worse with more households keeping refrigerators.Another example of energy consumption is heating a home in winter or air conditioning one in summer.
Now multiply that by two. Then multiply it by the fact that according to most surveys, half of marriages end in divorce. That means most households will end up doubling wasted water, energy, garbage, and paper resources.
For people uninterested in staying together for the environment, there are some solutions.
One good way is to recycle. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, almost one-third of garbage in the United States is now recycled, compared to only about 16 percent in 1984. That includes “52 percent of all paper, 31 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging and 67 percent of all major appliances are now recycled.”
Next, examine chemical use in your home. “One of the biggest culprits in ocean pollution is phosphates, common in laundry detergents and some cleaning products,” according to an article in Share Guide, a health magazine. Consider scaling back on the number of loads of laundry you do each week.
10 TIPS ON HOW TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT
Divorce leads to environmental waste because people living apart doubles the amount of energy, water, garbage and paper wasted into two new households. Knowing this, here are some ways to help the environment:
1. Ask that companies e-mail you instead of snail mail. Limiting the use of paper junk mail could save a lot of trees.
2. Attach a low-flow faucet aerator to your sink to reduce water flow by 50 percent.
3. Use reusable containers for food storage instead of wrapping food in foil or plastic wrap.
4. Reduce your hot water heater’s energy usage by turning it down to 130 degrees.
5. Use latex paint, not oil-based paint, when redecorating your bedroom.
6. Keep your tires in good shape to save gas, which saves you money and helps the environment.
7. Raising the temperature in your refrigerator by 10 degrees to save energy.
8. Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones.
9. When changing your car’s oil, ask technicians if they can recycle it.
10. If you have children, use cloth diapers instead of plastic ones.
Krystle Russin is a freelance journalist in Austin, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in government (pre-law), and minors in journalism and history.
